Plipsqueak by Clothearz

review...
Clothearz - PLIPSQUEAK (Poultry Productions PP 4) MC
Our Poultry Yorkshire friends are back again! Collaborating this time (instead of having a side each, as with the last tape), Drake and Cloth have come up with a tape that kind of fills the gap between synth music and Nurse With Wound.
This is exceptionally good, very experimental music that manages to strike a good balance between weirdness and accessibility, by using very few "nasty" sounds and keeping the structure simple to avoid the cluttered industrial effect. Instruments used include: guitar, synths, viola, percussion, voice, often with effects such as echo. The resultant fourteen musical episodes are quite difficult to describe (truly new-music always presents such problems!) (that's why the term "innovative" was coined - Ed.), hints of Conrad Schnitzler on some of the more synthesized works, Ron Geesin in the guitar and some of the more outrageous voice parts, Bruce Gilbert in the use of looping effects, and Peter Frohmader - especially on the closing Viola Diabola, which is almost a direct musical dedication.
The only (minor) fault with the album is that the production/editing could have been done better (web note: repaired with this reissue!), otherwise - a very enjoyable tape that should please virtually anyone with a liking for the unusual.
Alan Freeman (Audion #7, page 29 - January 1988)

Credits

released November 14, 2023

All compositions, performances, sound tratments and arrangements
by Risotto Drake and Mackeral R.I. Cloth (Clothearz).
Recorded and mixed on 4 track, Autumn 1987.

Original cassette: Poultry Productions PP4 © 1987
Digital transfer in 2007, and final remaster 11-12/7/2016 by Alan Freeman
at Tachyon Studio. Original cover: Clothearz. Layout: Xylem.

Mackeral Cloth (Michael Clough) & Risotto Drake (Richard Errington):
synthesizer, violin, voices, sounds, etc.

Clothearz audio samples here: auriclemusic.bandcamp.com/album/introduction-cassettes-sampler